MARY MEYER -- NO PRISONER TO MS

Mary Kathryn Meyer of Jackson says she isn't living with multiple sclerosis, she's living in spite of it.

"It's a spiteful thing," Meyer admits. "I just don't let myself get down because of it. I can't."

Strong words, clearly; and looking at her, strong is precisely how she looks. One would be hard pressed to believe that when she was first diagnosed with MS in 1984, doctors told her she would be confined to a wheel chair within five years.

She has made charlatans out of those doctors, thankfully, and is still up and walking, a full-time mother and wife. Meyer seems in tip-top condition, certainly not a victim of a disease that wears away the control people have over their bodies.

Symptoms can range from numbness to paralysis to blindness. The disease afflicts 100 people a day, and affects celebrities Richard Pryor and Annette Funicello.

Most of those with MS are between the ages of 20 and 40 and an estimated quarter million Americans have MS, she said, adding that there is no known cause or cure. Meyer is on medication that doesn't cure the disease, but keeps it from getting worse.

Meyer was diagnosed over 10 years ago with the disease that, she says, "short circuits" the central nervous system.

The disease has certainly made her road rougher than most.

When she had difficulty with the vision in her left eye, Meyer went to a doctor who diagnosed her with MS.

Obviously, she was stunned.

"For nine months I couldn't talk about it," Meyer said. "The only people who knew were my husband and my son. I thought my life was over. Everyone I knew with MS was in a wheel chair."

She said her friends and family were ostracized. Her parents knew something was wrong and she told them she would tell them only when she was ready.

"All I told them was that I wasn't dying," she said. "I just couldn't talk about it yet."

And then one day she took a drive and found her inner strength again.

"I was driving down the interstate and all of a sudden, I said 'It's not going to get to me.' Something hit me out of a clear blue sky and told me it's not going to get me."

She told her family about it and decided it was time to start getting the best of her disease and stop letting it get the best of her.

"She's very stubborn," said Charles Meyer, Mary's husband of many years. "I've got tear stains on many of my shirts, but she refused to let it get to her."

And she hasn't let her disease get in the way of her life since.

Meyer is very active in multiple sclerosis philanthropic causes. She is a member of the local multiple sclerosis support group, the MS Gateway Area Chapter, and the MS Clinical Center in St. Louis.

What Meyer seems to be most proud of, however, is walking.

She and her son, Chad Meyer, have been local coordinators for the annual Multiple Sclerosis "Super City Walk" since 1990.

"It's important to Chad," Meyer said, calling him her best friend. "He's an only child and he spent most of his life with me in and out of hospitals."

This year the event will be held in Jackson on April 14, and Meyer urges everyone who is interested in participating to call her at 243-8501.

Meyer first became interested in forming an MS benefit walk in 1989. She and her family went to a Super City Walk in St. Louis. She and her sister, husband and son raised over $700 then and she knew she could make a difference.

And she certainly has. In 1991 the walk drew 124 participants and raised more than $7,383. Each year the event has about 200 people and last year, at its low, the walk raised nearly $6,000. All proceeds go to the National MS Society, a good cause, no doubt.

In 1995, the MS Society spent $14.2 million to support research and medical programs, according to Meyer, saying that since 1946 the society has invested $170 million to find the cause and a cure.

The MS Society, founded in 1946, is the only national voluntary health organization in the U.S. devoted solely to supporting international research on multiple sclerosis as well as providing services to people with MS and their families through its network of more than 140 chapters and branches.

"She's a very hard worker when it comes to her walk," said Carrie Nicholson, a senior project coordinator for the MS Society. "She's outgoing and determined. She does a lot of the work herself.

"When she wants something done for the walk, she speaks out and gets it."

Meyer clings to the belief that someday there will be a cure and feels she is doing all that she can to make sure that happens.

"I'm going to beat it," said Meyer, obviously a fighter. "And they will find a cure."